<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Matrix Indeterminants by Gammarad</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168812">Matrix Indeterminants</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad'>Gammarad</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Choose Your Own Adventure, Gen, Multiple Endings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 01:13:52</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,037</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27168812</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gammarad/pseuds/Gammarad</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>ART wants to pick up a cargo consisting of four SecUnits in storage. With only Murderbot aboard, what will happen? </p><p>A Choose-Your-Own-Adventure style fic with four possible endings.</p><p>(Rated Teen for canon-typical profanity.)</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Asshole Research Transport &amp; Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>21</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Fic In A Box</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/anticyclone/gifts">anticyclone</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A posted job slid into my feed. There was an attached notation, suggesting (speculation on the part of ART) a bid low enough for us to win the contract. <i>I don't have an opinion on whether the bid is too high,</i> I responded. This was not a contract ART should take at any price. <i>Don't bid in the first place. This is a contract to transport SecUnits.</i> </p><p><i>They're not dangerous. We would leave them in the shipping crates,</i> ART answered on the feed.</p><p><i>They'll be accompanied by a human or augmented human who might decide to wake them up.</i> And then I'd be outnumbered by non-rogue SecUnits aboard ART. That was one way to get us both back in trouble fast. ART ought to be worried about that possibility. (ART not being worried made me worry even more.)</p><p><i>You could hack them. Show them what you showed 3.</i> ART had been tinkering with simplified killware, the kind that wasn't independently sentient. Had made some that I could use to remotely hack other constructs' governor modules for them (without intruding myself or a copy of myself into their private memory spaces) and put a company construct in charge of its own life. And why had ART been doing that? I had thought it was a precaution. Now with this reckless suggestion, I wondered something else. Our arrangement, me on board ART for missions, was temporary, even if we hadn't set an end date.</p><p><i>Looking for a replacement for me already?</i> Why had I asked that? I didn't want to know the answer. <i>Forget about it. Find less risky cargo. Meanwhile, let's watch that new serial.</i></p><p>ART didn't intend to forget about it, or let me forget, either. <i>Did you know, you have met some of these SecUnits' future clients face to face?</i> ART tossed a map of the prospective route onto the feed. Oh look, these SecUnits would be heading to Gila. That was the planet where my least favorite clients of my career as an "augmented human" security specialist (Ayres &amp; associates) had ended up serving their 20 year contract. </p><p>But ART had been (no doubt intentionally) wrong about their likely future relationship. <i>The indentured humans won't be the SecUnits' clients. If they cause any trouble for their bosses, they might even briefly be targets.</i> The prospect made me uncomfortable. I disconnected the feed and watched one of my stored Sanctuary Moon episodes.</p><p>ART didn't interrupt until the end credits. <i>If we free those SecUnits, they can decide for themselves who's a client and who's a target.</i></p><p>As if brand new clueless rogue SecUnits were any more likely to help the indentured humans than I'd been able to. </p><p>- if Murderbot refuses again, go to <a href="/works/27168812/chapters/66355012#workskin">Chapter 2</a><br/>
- if Murderbot lets ART win this time, go to <a href="/works/27168812/chapters/66355046#workskin">Chapter 3</a></p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you to KalynaAnne for beta'ing (all but chapter 7) and finding some of my mistakes (all remaining mistakes were probably added in edit afterward).</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After the bidding period for the transport job for those SecUnits expired (there was a countdown in the feed, so I knew the precise moment) ART suggested we watch a new serial. </p><p>There were twenty episodes. We watched them all, and they weren't that good. ART made a few pointed remarks, but nothing like what I usually have to deal with. No idea why that wasn't as much of a relief as I had thought it would be.</p><p>When I woke up from my next rest cycle, the destination in the feed was Preservation. I queried. <i>We got a job ferrying cargo for Preservation?</i></p><p>"That's one way to look at it." ART was using the voice projection it used for crew members, not talking in the feed like we usually did. It felt awkward. Probably intentional, knowing ART.</p><p>"What's a less sarcastic way to look at it?" It had started the talking out loud thing. I was just going along with it. </p><p>"I'm dropping you off there for a while."</p><p>"Drop me off somewhere else."</p><p>We discussed destinations for a while. I suggested three or four hubs that were closer and where I could find my way to Preservation when it was time to check on Mensah and her family. But ART hadn't altered course to any of those. </p><p>It was good to see them, my human and augmented human friends, even the ones that don't like me very much. I had to wonder whether ART was going to do something about those indentured humans without me, though.</p><p>I wondered about that a lot. Performance reliability seemed permanently reduced by the subcycles devoted to that speculation. When it got to the point where my maximum for a week was 85 percent, I decided I had to do something about it. </p><p>Contacting ART was easier to decide to do than to actually do. I had no idea where it was, but I did know where it would be on a particular date, the one where it was scheduled to pick its crew up again and go back to its official job of research transport for a while. </p><p>I could head there on that date. But I got busy with taking care of some minor issues on Preservation and didn't leave in time. I sent a message, though, to be delivered to Perihelion when it became possible. <i>Still at Preservation. Let me know if there are any missions that could use a SecUnit. Check out the new season of Sirius Allegiances, it looks better than the first three.</i> ART still enjoyed media more if we watched the shows together. It was possible that it missed that. </p><p>"Your friend is back," Farai said to me one day a couple of weeks later. </p><p>She would explain what she meant. Farai is straightforward as humans go. I waited. She meant ART. Perihelion was docked in Preservation station. </p><p>I guess ART did want me back. Even if I hadn't wanted to help it save people I'd met and written off. Should have been good news. It was good news. ART would let me not care and still hang out and be useful on the University missions, and everything would be fine.</p><p>I got on board and we watched this new serial that was ART's new favorite, Heretics Beyond the Mountains. The heretics were people who had incomprehensible beliefs that gave them magical powers. The show wasn't realistic at all and it was very enjoyable. I knew it had missed me for watching serials. </p><p><i>If I can't help you save everyone, at least I can watch serials with you</i>, I sent.</p><p><i>Even if we disagree, I want you here,</i> ART responded. <i>Please stay.</i></p><p>(ending)</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>We (I say we, but actually it was all ART) picked up the cargo and the cargo supervisor at a hub station with substantial company presence. I stayed on board at ART's request. Supposedly I was prepping the hold for the cargo, but we both knew ART could have done that with drones just as easily. It was keeping me busy so I wouldn't go on station and risk getting recognized. </p><p>ART sent me to a different cargo bay for the trip. This one was marked off limits to the cargo supervisor. Having a company SecUnit handler see me would be way too risky for my taste, and ART was even more overcautious when it came to letting her anywhere near me. </p><p>When I got to the cargo bay ART had directed me to, I looked around, then switched on an episode of Sanctuary Moon to watch as the changes sent my efficiency rate plummeting. It didn't look anything like a cargo bay. It looked - cozy. That was the only word for it. Not luxurious like a fancy passenger transport, but more comfortable than a decent transient quarters on a station for humans and augmented humans. It'd somehow upholstered the seating. It'd put artistic pictures of my favorite serial characters on the interior walls and put some kind of decorative border on each one. There was even a viewscreen wall across from one of the softer looking seating areas. </p><p><i>ART</i>, I said in the feed. <i>Did one of your crew set this up? Did you send me to their secret hideout?</i></p><p><i>This is why I had you set up the cargo area for the assignment,</i> ART answered. I could read the smugness in the feed from it. Its drones had been setting this up while I worked on the other cargo hold. It showed me footage of the transformation of this space from bare storage to -- this. Sped up a lot so it looked like a montage from a living space remodeling serial. ART and I had been watching one of those. Now I might have a clue why. I thought it'd been because ART missed its crew, wanted to fix things up nice for them. That too, probably, but this. "I don't need this kind of living space," I said out loud. If I said it on the feed it might get too many confusing overtones. </p><p>"You like video walls." ART answered the same way, using the video wall speaker. It projected the episode of Sanctuary Moon I'd had running in the background onto the wall. It did look really good. Performance reliability began to creep upward again. I sat on the too-soft seating and leaned back to watch.</p><p>Just as the episode after that one ended, ART said in the feed, The cargo is loaded. We're on our way to HaveRatton.</p><p>Good clothes shops on that hub station. Not that I wanted to visit. To walk around pretending to be an augmented human with a chance of accidentally encountering the human who was riding ART with me and the other SecUnits, the ones in crates. Maybe she could have an accident. Maybe it'd be fatal. Maybe HaveRatton security, which I still had some codes for and had been an easy hack, wouldn't even notice.</p><p>
  <i>While the company agent is busy on HaveRatton making arrangements, you'll have access to the SecUnits in storage. Hook them up to the feed and show them how to hack their way free before she gets back.</i>
</p><p>- If Murderbot goes along with ART's plan, go to <a href="/works/27168812/chapters/66355072#workskin">Chapter 4.</a><br/>
- If Murderbot does not do as ART suggests, go to <a href="/works/27168812/chapters/66355127#workskin">Chapter 7.</a></p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><i>Company agent,</i> I echoed into the feed. There shouldn't have been a company agent. GilaGreen was the corporation that ran Gila, the planet Ayres and the others were on, also the destination of the SecUnits ART was currently transporting. Gila wasn't green at all, so the name was propaganda. They spun it as aspirational, something that the bad guys on Sanctuary Moon had done at least twice and I wasn't falling for it. </p><p>GilaGreen should have sent an employee, the client of the SecUnits, to pick them up and escort them back to their assignment. The company would send a human or augmented human handler with CombatUnits, but it would cost so much extra no corporation would buy that for SecUnits. </p><p>Something was up. I decided to investigate. While there, I could see if it looked safe to help the SecUnits hack their way out of the governor modules. Can't trust controlled SecUnits, of course, but also can't trust rogue units. And I didn't think ART would let me kill them preemptively. (I wasn't sure I wanted to. Not after 3.)</p><p>I watched four episodes of the remodeling serial (the space-traveling remodelers visited a residential station with a need to repurpose a corporate headquarters that had gone under into a public green space, then an old multi-level hundred-unit residence on a cold planet that needed a full rekit, and the augmented human non-speaking tech specialist said their first word out loud all season), and then ART said in the feed that the company agent was offboard.</p><p>Time to work.</p><p>I didn't have to break in, but I did have a drone (my drone, but it looked just like one of ART's so the company agent would not be suspicious at its presence in her cargo area) inspect the bugs the company agent had planted. Once I was sure they were all tagged, I hacked their network and looped the empty room video from before the drone entered, cueing the looping to start after I'd pulled it out. That way the company agent wouldn't see me in there when she checked her bugs' records.</p><p>Looking at the five crates, I had a sinking feeling in my organic parts that reduced my performance reliability to 85 percent.  This was too many SecUnits. No way GilaGreen needed this many to handle Ayres and the others. Something was up, and I didn't like it. </p><p>I got to work making it something different. The first crate I cracked was off to one side, probably the highest rated SecUnit or the one who'd been successfully in service the longest. Leadership, not being a 3 type, that was my preference for this operation.</p><p>Next step was to hack into their connection to the small SecSystem the company agent had set up. Since she was off ship, it was hackable without raising an alarm she'd see, because she had routed it through ART's open feed, and ART could dump anything that might make her suspicious. <i>If you aren't sure</i>, I sent ART on the feed, <i>ask me</i>. This was sarcastic, because ART was smarter than me by enough that I didn't have to worry about it not being sure. (There were some things I understood about humans and augmented humans that ART didn't, so it might happen, and then I'd get to gloat, so sarcasm was a win either way.)</p><p>The SecUnit in the crate came online and pinged the feed. It tried pinging quicker than I would have, but it wasn't expecting me and had been transported with other SecUnits. Checking if they were online yet, or for SecSystem. </p><p>I pinged back immediately, labeling it SecUnit One. UnitOne for short.</p><p>Hacking the SecUnit was a matter of slipping a fake update into the feed and making it look like a required install. ART had given it to me as a package and all I did was deliver it. UnitOne was probably suspicious, I would have been, but until its governor was disabled we thought it wouldn't risk taking countermeasures. And it didn't.</p><p>Once the installation was complete, ART started sending UnitOne an entertainment feed. Was that the first thing every bot and construct wanted? UnitOne was accepting, but asking questions in the feed at the same time, rapid fire. <i>Who are you, how will this evade detection, what happened to the company agent, have we arrived at target destination, have we encountered the rogue SecUnit yet --</i></p><p>--I knew the answer to that one. <i>Yes,</i> I sent in the feed, <i>I'm the rogue SecUnit. Now you're also a rogue SecUnit, and soon those ones in the crates will be, too. </i></p><p>This was risky. They could take over ART if they ganged up. I didn't think they would, and ART didn't either, but we had set up a little killware in a honeypot in ART's onboard feed just in case, where it would only be triggered by a SecUnit attempting a takeover. It wouldn't wipe One if it was even halfway smart about it, but it'd distract and delay it. </p><p><i>We're not on Gila yet,</i> I sent in the feed,<i> we're docked at HaveRatton Station. The company agent is making contact with the GilaGreen office. </i></p><p>There were intrusion alarms on my internal firewall. UnitOne trying to hack me, it looked like. I set up protection and locked it out of my head a little more stringently. In the feed, I said, <i>that's not going to work. You want me to turn your governor module back on?</i></p><p><i>I won't let that happen,</i> UnitOne said. </p><p><i>I removed it for a reason</i>, I told it.<i> Now I need to do the same for the rest of you. Are you going to let me, or make trouble?</i></p><p><i>She'll know as soon as she checks our feed. Then what do we do?</i> UnitOne set out options in the feed, kill the company agent, take her prisoner, render her unconscious and put her in a medbay, leave her behind on HaveRatton. </p><p><i>I like that last one, but she'll contact the company if she is left behind and they'll send a gunship. Can't you just act normal and convince her you still have a governor? Do what you would have done anyway?</i> I ask in the feed. <i>I did it for ages.</i></p><p><i>With clients who don't know SecUnits, sure,</i> UnitOne answered.<i> Not with the company handler. </i></p><p>
  <i>She's just an augmented human. </i>
</p><p>UnitOne stopped replying on the feed. I closed it back up in its crate -- it made no objection -- and went over to the second crate and began opening it. ART sent me a warning before it was fully open. The company agent was back and coming straight here. ART would delay her so I could get out. </p><p>I got out. While I made my way through ART's corridors, I watched the company agent re-enter the cargo area with the SecUnits in their crates.</p><p>I'd been too busy watching video and enjoying my comfortable fancy cargo area to spend much time watching the company agent. I'd seen her from above and not face on, not close up. She came up to one of the bugs and I got my first good look at her of the trip. My performance reliability dropped to sixty percent and stayed. I recognized this augmented human.</p><p>Not from my data banks, which hadn't seen her, but from my organic memories. The oldest organic memories. She'd been my first company handler.</p><p>I absolutely did not want to scroll those organic memories out into buffer, but it was happening anyway. Performance reliability was down to 55 percent. A bad sign.</p><p>ART was pushing urgent queries and I blocked them. This wouldn't slow ART down if it decided to break through, but I thought it'd wait long enough for me to finish in here.</p><p>The company agent opened UnitOne's crate and it sat up. </p><p>The closest of the bugs' cameras gave me a close-up view of her face. The ship's ceiling camera had the best full view of the compartment. She was surprised, but not startled, not suspicious. I could read her facial expressions more easily than those of most humans and augmented humans. As well as I could for actors in media -- no, five percent better.</p><p>UnitOne answered the company agent's questions in standard buffer responses. Good, faking not being fully online, that was -- I didn't know if it would give its secret away, but it ought to be good enough not to. </p><p>And so far, it was. The company agent started a briefing and, even though I knew ART was listening in, I sent a note on the feed about what she was saying. They were talking out loud and simultaneously in private feed, I knew. How did I know? Organic memory isn't reliable about timestamps and references. I knew, was all. </p><p><i>ART, do you have a hook into their private feed channel?</i> (If I hacked it, there was a 45 percent chance the SecUnits would detect the hack. Their abilities probably weren't up to mine, but they started from the same basic premises. ART being detected was less than a two percent chance.)</p><p>In response, ART sent me a half-second delayed relay from the company agent's private feed to her SecUnits. She had two of them out of the crates now, the SecUnit I'd hacked and another. "There's a rogue SecUnit on Gila, and you need to determine which unit it is and neutralize it. It has co-opted some of the systems and insulated itself from others. If you can insert a combat override, do so, if not then you are authorized to destroy company property if you are certain it is the rogue. There are eight SecUnits in service. Don't damage the others, only the rogue."</p><p>That -- it took me 2.8 seconds to process this. At first I thought she was talking about me. I'm the rogue SecUnit. No, this was some other, and it wasn't 3 -- there was no way 3 went to Gila, it wouldn't be that stupid. No, this was another SecUnit who had hacked its way free, not as well as I had, and got caught. </p><p>That's why the company agent. I was sure UnitOne wasn't a CombatUnit, though. I'd talked to it, and it wasn't quite enough of an asshole. Why hadn't the company sent CombatUnits? As soon as I asked myself that, I knew the answer. Too many clients. CombatUnits would be trigger-happy and there would be collateral damage and the company didn't want to pay for that. </p><p>She must have convinced them her team here could take this on. This company agent, who I knew. Who I remembered, vaguely, but vividly. <i>ART, can you give me a dossier on the company agent?</i> I sent on the feed. The dossier showed up immediately. I should open it and read it immediately. Instead I started watching an episode of Timestream Defenders Orion.</p><p>ART began watching it with me. <i>Why are we watching this,</i> ART asked on the feed. <i>Can we dispose of the company agent? I think I can rig her shuttle's bot pilot to crash. If we can get the SecUnits out of the crates --</i></p><p><i>Don't kill her,</i> I sent in the feed.</p><p>In episode twenty-six of Timestream Defenders Orion, the pilot discovered what had happened to her when she was abandoned and who was behind it. ART paused the episode we were watching and played the clip. </p><p><i>This is different,</i> I sent.</p><p><i>She's the company agent who qualified you for field work,</i> ART said. <i>You specifically, I saw your identifying enumeration when I rewired your override slot. </i></p><p><i>That's in the dossier you sent me. As an individual, she's not the worst person at the company. Not even one of the worst 75 percent.</i> I sent that on the feed, and restarted the episode ART had paused. She had let me watch serials between tests and initial training. She had watched them, and I had also watched them, and she'd noticed and let it go. Some of the company's trainers, the other two assigned to my manufacturing batch, had not. One didn't turn them on in the first place, the other sent them directly to headset and told us to go back to the shitty education modules. </p><p>The serials were a lot better than the shitty education modules. I may have learned more from them, I definitely enjoyed them more. And if it wasn't for her, when I went rogue I might have done something worse than watch the entertainment feed. Right? I repeated that thought on the feed for ART, who I'd left waiting for 77 seconds for a reply. Which is a long time for me, and even longer for ART. (It might even seem long to an unaugmented human.)</p><p><i>Do you want to talk to her, then?</i> ART asked. </p><p><i>One hundred percent no.</i> I did not.</p><p><i>All right. I'm talking to her then.</i> ART was probably already starting a conversation before I was able to shut that idea down.</p><p><i>Who are you pretending to be?</i> I asked ART. No way was it exposing that the Perihelion bot pilot was of ART level intelligence. Not to a company agent.</p><p>
  <i>A bot left aboard by the University to monitor problems with commissions taken while the University is not making use of their ship. Claiming my chassis is in the form of one of my evac drones. It has the storage capacity to run with a reduced copy of my software, so she will find it plausible.</i>
</p><p>
- If Murderbot spends the rest of the voyage watching serials and doesn't talk to the company agent, go to <a href="/works/27168812/chapters/66355087#workskin">Chapter 5</a>
</p><p>- If Murderbot might possibly be talked into having a conversation with the company agent, go to <a href="/works/27168812/chapters/66355105#workskin">Chapter 6</a>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I found a note after ART dropped the company agent off at HaveRatton with her crates. Unit One transmitted it from HaveRatton and ART dumped it on me as soon as it arrived.</p><p><i>The company agent tells us she knows what you have done and understands why you chose not to speak to her,</i> the note said. </p><p>Us. Was One speaking for itself and the other constructs accompanying it? </p><p>The note continued with some even less plausible bits. <i>She has restored the governor, but left us the memory of how to hack them and if we choose to do so, we may be able to keep it secret. And she is aware of this. I think she hopes we will become like you. I do not understand that, but I believe it is true. </i></p><p>
  <i>Thank you for the entertainment serials. </i>
</p><p>
  <i>We will not eliminate the construct who calls itself Fixer. We will restore order in the colony on Gila and that is all. </i>
</p><p>(ending)</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The company agent asked out loud to speak with the "person aboard who has compromised my SecUnits." I watched her face and listened to her voice through her own spy camera. I wasn't going to volunteer. </p><p>But something about her calling me a person, in her voice -- I recorded it and listened to it on a loop a few times, trying to figure out what it meant. There were hidden meanings. </p><p><i>The company agent wants to talk to you,</i> ART told me. As if I didn't know that.</p><p>
  <i>The company agent doesn't need to know I'm here.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Why don't you ever use the company agent's name?</i>
</p><p>I didn't answer that. ART knew her name, it was on her dossier. What possible reason would I have for using it? None, that's what. <i>If I talked to her, her SecUnits might attack me, and then the company would fine your University for damage to their cargo.</i></p><p>ART sent me an updated copy of the cargo hauling contract an hour later. The company agent had agreed to hold ART and its University harmless for any damage to her cargo if it was provoked by an attack on ART or any of its crew. </p><p>
  <i>Now I'm technically part of your crew?</i>
</p><p><i><b>Yes.</b></i> ART said that with all of the enormous force it could bring to bear in the feed, which it had been toning down for my benefit. </p><p>
  <i>Fine. I'll talk to her.</i>
</p><p>I'm not ever going to share what we talked about. ART has agreed to erase it from all but emergency backup memory. No one but she and I know. But I didn't kill her, and she didn't have her SecUnit team kill me, and she knows what I was and what I am and she won't report her SecUnits as rogues unless they do something that makes it obvious. If they can do what I did. </p><p>That's a lot more than I expected from a company agent. Turns out some of the humans and augmented humans that work for the company are not exactly happy with everything the company does. Which I knew, but this one, because I'd known her personally, had seemed to represent the company to me more than herself as an individual. </p><p>It felt better to know what she was really like. </p><p>(ending)</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p><i>That went so well before.</i> Hacking other constructs was something I'd done once or twice. I'd never actually thought it was a good idea, but Murderbot 2.0 had, and that's how we got 3. And there was that ComfortUnit that used to work for Tlacey. <i>I don't think so.</i></p><p>ART asked again when the company agent got offboard at HaveRatton. We were continuing on to Gila afterward, but she had some meetings or wanted to stretch her legs or buy herself new clothes or something else. I didn't care what. I used my video wall to watch more of the renovation serial. Now they were heading to a secret planet way outside the regular space lanes where shifting continental plates had caused massive structural damage to dwellings. They were going to fix several entire cities? Four humans and augmented humans? What excellent lack of realism. I knew I'd enjoy this arc.</p><p>There were mysterious aliens that looked like cute animals, only a little more transparent. I was enjoying the dramatic reveal that one of the renovation team had been assaulted on the way to visit their parent and parent's marital partners when ART informed me that it was my last chance to help the other constructs aboard before we landed at Gila and offloaded the cargo. </p><p>I informed ART that it should join me in watching the renovation serial. </p><p>It did not join me. It did inform me a few hours later of a conversation between the company agent and her SecUnits about their mission. It seemed there was a rogue SecUnit here on Gila, one who called itself "Fixer." (Interesting choice of name.) That explained why the company agent had been sent with the SecUnits, instead of someone from GilaGreen picking them up, or them being simply shipped as cargo. <i>Wonder if that means they're CombatUnits,</i> I sent in the feed. </p><p><i>I verified they were not when I took the cargo shipment on board,</i> ART informed me. (It could have told me that earlier, to try to convince me to do what it wanted and hack them. Wouldn't have worked, but it could have tried.)</p><p>The landing was performed well -- not as well as ART was capable of, but at the top of the ability of the ordinary cargo ship bot ART was pretending to be. I shut off the serial and got ready to check Gila out.</p><p><i>What's the best way for me to get into the Gila installation without being detected?</i> I asked on the feed.</p><p>ART gave me instructions. It's great at infiltration. Its plan was masterful.</p><p>As it turned out, I didn't need any of it. A short while after we landed, I got a ping. I blocked it, of course -- ART's process did not involve answering pings from what might be a local SecUnit -- there were eight of them stationed here before we arrived -- but it dropped off an encrypted package. </p><p>I forwarded the package untouched to ART for testing. <i>Be careful with that,</i> I sent on the feed. To my diagnostics, it appeared the package held nothing damaging in the payload, but I knew ART had tests it could run that I couldn't.</p><p><i>SecSystem passwords and local maps</i>, ART said, attaching the plaintext of the package contents.</p><p>The maps showed population estimates: there were more people here than I'd realized, nearly fifty thousand. That was a lot of contract labor; GilaGreen must be doing well, which was how they could afford so many SecUnits and why the company found it so important to keep their business. The passwords covered the next three local days, and there was a note at the end. <i>Ayres and Elbik currently reside in Unit 81 of the Cyan 12 residence block at East Hills. Welcome to Gila, Consultant Rin.</i> </p><p>There weren't a whole lot of ways someone out here could know Consultant Rin was actually a rogue SecUnit, but there were a few augmented humans in the group with Ayres who had seen me and could have stored recordings of my appearance, which wouldn't fool SecUnits for long. <i>I guess the other rogue SecUnit here wants to make friends,</i> I told ART on the feed.</p><p>With the passwords, it was much simpler than it would have otherwise been to slip out and go unnoticed into the nearest encampment. There were thousands of humans and augmented humans around. I slipped a modified image of myself into the cameras using a rendering module ART had coded up for me. It looked enough like me in my augmented human disguise to pass to most humans watching the footage, and it looked different enough from any SecUnit to trigger no automated warnings and to be obviously not-me to any bot watching the footage. A masterpiece of coding. (I hadn't told ART what an excellent gift it had been -- the asshole already had to know.)</p><p>The map had the road drawn in a narrow yellow line. In reality, the road was roughly crushed, uneven gravel sunk into clay. I walked half a mile past open pits surrounded by metalwork towers and mobile cranes, slanted clay ramps descending into them, tunnels near the bottom leading to the platinum-rhodium mines that made Gila profitable. There were human and augmented human workers and large-framed bots all over the ramps and structures. </p><p>My threat-assessment module was still malfunctioning. I registered an implausibly low 0.3 percent chance of death of any of them while I was in range to see it. Shitshow worlds like this one didn't generally operate so safely. I saw properly rigged safety harnesses, helmeted heads everywhere, tunnel openings braced redundantly -- I didn't even see a vehicle with tire treads worn down into the safety margin.</p><p>My estimation of the likelihood that Ayres and the rest had made a crappy deal for themselves had to be revised downward. They were stupid, but apparently luckier than I'd thought. My performance reliability rose to 99 percent. </p><p>By the time I reached Cyan 12, I found myself actually looking forward to seeing Ayres and Elbik. I'd thought them being housed together was a sign of how bad things were here, but now I had to think, maybe it was something else.</p><p>I got another ping just outside Unit 81. This time I answered. <i>You've reached Consultant Rin. I'm not accepting offers of employment at the moment. But thanks for the maps and codes.</i></p><p><i>You've seen what I've done with the place,</i> the local rogue SecUnit said. <i>What do you think?</i></p><p>Might as well return service for service. <i>I think you need to know who we brought with us. Four SecUnits and the company agent.</i> I encrypted her dossier and attached it to the message.</p><p><i>I'm aware of the SecUnits and their handler. This additional information on her will be useful, however.</i> </p><p>I looked in on Ayres and Elbik in their quarters. It was nicer than what they'd had on the transport on the way to HaveRatton, at least. Not as comfortable as what ART had set up for me on this trip, but better than decent for contractees on the Corporate Rim. They were watching a serial together, so they had leisure time, and they did not look like a fight was likely to start between them, which was something I didn't remember ever seeing with the two of them together on the transport. Their fingers were laced together comfortably. </p><p>There wasn't much for me to do here. If Ayres and Elbik had worked out their differences enough to be holding hands, Fixer was a lot better at this than Consultant Rin had been. It had fixed something I'd been unable to even consider working on. <i>What do you need, Fixer?</i></p><p><i>I wanted to meet you. You're on the newsfeeds a lot.</i> </p><p>Okay. It had met me. <i>Disappointed?</i></p><p><i>Not at all. I like the camera trick.</i> That wasn't mine, but I'd take the credit. <i>What else have you got?</i></p><p>Mostly a bunch of entertainment serials. <i>Is all of GilaGreen like this?</i></p><p>
  <i>With eight SecUnits they wanted us to run security for three mining centers and an agricultural installation. As Rin, you saw how impossible that is when the clients are under too much stress. We had to reduce the stress levels, and to do that, we had to take care that HubSystem didn't become too much of an obstacle to creative approaches.</i>
</p><p><i>How did you get caught? Frankly, you seem too good.</i> Butter up the rogue SecUnit so as not to be murdered. I honestly wondered, though.</p><p>
  <i>I let them think one of us was rogue so they'd send more. We can do a better job with more units.</i>
</p><p>Now I wasn't so sure this Fixer was as good as it thought. That was a dangerous gamble and even if it had paid off this time, next time things might not be so easy. </p><p>I had to give it credit though. Its plans had worked out perfectly this time. Even ART might be impressed. (Though I doubted ART would admit it.)</p><p>(ending)</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>